All posts tagged: Crimea

Russian Stalemate

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Frank Lee The brewing conflict between the Russian Oligarchy and the Russian people is reaching a crisis point. The side that prevails will determine the future of Russia and perhaps the world. On 17 March 1991 a referendum was held in the Soviet Union on whether or not the USSR should continue to exist. There was an 80% turnout (some 185,647,355.00 of registered voters). The upshot of this election was that 113,512,812.00 voted to preserve the USSR. That’s 71.92%. Their wishes were disregarded, however. The entrenched bureaucracies and business interests, collectively the nomenklatura, decided that this was too good an opportunity to pass up; there was money to be made in this once in a lifetime situation. Which sounds eerily rather like EU referenda practise. The sunny interlude of Gorbachov was to give way to the beginning of the Yeltsin catastrophe – a catastrophe not equalled since WW2. The emergence of the cosmopolitan business oligarchy and its political hangers-on was to consolidate its power and create a new kind of political, economic and social structure. …

Discuss: Kerch Strait and Azov Sea Tensions

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The Guardian has a an opinion piece today, titled: The EU’s response to Russia must be bold and unanimous. It is written by German politician Norbert Röttgen, head of the Bundestag foreign affairs committee…and it is simply massively dishonest and one-sided. The “mainstream” narrative on Ukraine has been corrected to death in the alternate media, there is no need to go back over old ground, suffice to say, here are just few of the relevent facts which Mr Röttgen leaves out of his article: The Kerch Strait is incredibly shallow, it has a canal carved into to the sea bed to allow deep-draft ships to pass. Using the canal requires a pilot, and ships can only go in single file. The Ukrainian naval ships ignored these rules. Ships using the Kerch strait are required to give 72 hours notice, due to the narrowness of the passage and the shallowness of the sea. These rules have been in place for years. Ukraine ignored them. There have been calls – both inside and outside Ukraine – to …

Bleak See on the Black Sea

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Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarević Following the latest events in and around the Black Sea, two old questions are reappearing. Both are inviting us for a repeated elaboration: If a Monroe doctrine (about the hemispheric security exclusivity) is recognised at one corner of the globe, do we have a moral right or legal ground to negate it at the other corner? This irrespectively from the fact that Gorbachev-Yeltsin Russia unilaterally renounced the similar explication – the Brezhnev doctrine about irreversibility of communist gains. Clearly, the ‘might-makes-right’ as a conduct in international relations cannot be selectively accepted. Either it is acknowledged to all who can effectively self-prescribe and maintain such a monopoly of coercion, or it is absolutely (revoked and) condemned as contrary to behaviour among the civilised nations. Next to the first question is a right of pre-emption. It is apparent that within the Black Sea theatre, Russia acts in an unwilling, pre-emptive and rather defensive mode. That is not a regime change action on the other continent following the rational of extra security demand by …

WATCH: Who Are These Russians And Why Do We Hate Them?

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In his film, Regis Tremblay examines the history of US-Russian relations, talks to ordinary Russian people, deconstructs propaganda and attempts to answer the question – Who are these Russians? And Why Do We Hate Them? The escalating downturn of US relations with Russia has made the world a more dangerous place than at any time during the Cold War, including during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This film explores the many reasons why the US foreign policy establishment since the end of World War II hates all things Russian. With the exception of John Kennedy who sought to end nuclear weapons and to seek peace with Russia, every president since has used Russia as a threat to American interests, security and Democracy. Is Putin a thug and an assassin? Or he is a great, patriotic leader of a country that was nearly destroyed by President George Herbert Walker Bush’s CIA good old boys, Bill Clinton and the CIA asset Boris Yeltsin? But, perhaps the greatest fear is that Russia has regained its superpower status and because …

The Welsh Orchestra Defying the Ukrainian Coup Regime

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A Welsh brass band has been touring Crimean venues this month. This is totally unacceptable, according to the Kiev-based government of Ukraine – installed after the 2014 coup. Quite why these ten individuals playing traditional music in theatres around Crimean cities is so distasteful remains a mystery. For our part, it seems an innocent enough exercise, and perhaps a nice way to celebrate a peculiarity of history that ties Wales to that part of the world. The Ukrainian government felt strongly enough about it to “take steps”. First, the Ukrainian ambassador to Britain wrote to the organization, requesting they cancel the tour: They also tweeted about it: …and wrote to the Foreign Office, who in turn wrote to Symphoninc Brass Wales: Quite why two different national governments felt the need to pressure a small group of people from travelling to a perfectly safe part of the world, we do not know. Certainly it was nothing to do with risk. And what kind of PR coup does a small orchestra – only 10 pieces – really …

Island Russia

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by Paul Robinson, April 10, 2018 Vladislav Surkov, long considered an important ideological figure within the ‘Putin regime’, has previously been described as a ‘relative Westernizer’ among Vladimir Putin’s advisors. But even he is apparently now fed up with the West. In an article published [on April 9] in Russia in Global Affairs, Surkov declares that Russia is neither of the West nor of the East. Instead it stands alone. The events of 2014 (the annexation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine) marked a turning point, Surkov argues, the completion of Russia’s epic journey to the West, the end of numerous fruitless attempts to become part of Western civilization, to join the “good family” of European peoples. From 2014 onwards, a new long era, the epoch of 14+, stretches into a future in which we will experience a hundred (two  hundred? three hundred?) years of geopolitical loneliness. Surkov states that for the past 400 years, the Russian elite have tried to Westernize their country, following whatever trend seemed to be most in fashion in …

WATCH: A Brit in Crimea (on his holidays) 2018

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A life-affirming and (somewhat) non-political video for the holiday weekend. British freelance reporter Graham W. Phillips takes a longtime friend on an exploration of Crimea, getting a personal perspective on life there 4 years after its “annexation” by Russia following the 2014 coup d’état in Ukraine. Phillips rose to prominence for his brave frontline reporting of the Washington-sponsored “Anti-Terror Operation” and subsequent civil war in Ukraine. Here he is in lighter mode. We hope he gets the chance to make more such films in the future, and that we get the chance to watch them. This film was to be shown at a British film festival this year, but the invitation to a public screening was withdrawn, apparently in response to the Skripal event

Our media are not fit for purpose

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by Philip Roddis This morning, just after eight, BBC Radio 4’s John Humphrys interviewed an American ‘expert’ – didn’t catch the name – on the first meeting, today, of Trump and Putin. In the time between my reaching for the bread bin, and two slices of the moderately browned popping from the toaster, said expert had presented as incontestable truth – no need to back up such a claim – Russia’s ‘aggression’ as against America’s ‘caution’. People buy this crap, you know, if only subliminally. Why? Because the west, anglo saxon west in particular, long ago traded independence of foreign policy for favoured status in Washington, so framing the boundaries for mainstream discourse on global affairs. And because, thanks to English as world lingua franca, most of us grew up on a cultural diet of the US as force for good: the orientalist corollary being the inscrutable asiatic; untrustworthy and capable of unspeakable acts. (Nowadays no one says such things out loud of course. An age that’s given rise to so many new and useful …

“What about Crimea?” – Latest narrative from Canada’s foreign minister

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by Roger Annis A news compilation on New Cold War.org on March 8, 2017 reported the controversy that has broken out in Canada surrounding the family history of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland. Her maternal grandfather edited two pro-German newspapers in Poland and Austria during World War Two. He and his family settled in Canada after the war. The minister told a March 6 press conference in Ottawa that inquiries into her family history constitute a ‘Russia disinformation’ campaign directed at her and the Canadian government. The minister as well as sympathetic journalists state that the ‘disinformation’ has been aided and abetted by unnamed ‘pro-Russia’ websites. The Globe and Mail has published an article on March 16, 2017 in which Minister Freeland hits back at critics questioning her responses to the family history. The article is titled ‘Freeland condemns Russian aggression in Crimea, prompting Kremlin counterattack’. It provides a long list of alleged human rights violations in Crimea as listed by the minister in a statement, whose date happens to coincide with the three-year …

2016: The year of Russia’s triumph

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by The Saker, via Unz Review Just like European maps place Europe in the center of the planet, so do most western commentators look at the past year from a US/Europe-centered perspective. Which is fair enough. Furthermore, the AngloZionist Empire has just suffered two major disasters, the Brexit and the election of Trump, so there is truly much interesting to focus on. Still, what I want to do today is to look at the year which is ending from a Russian perspective. The following were the major challenges Russia faced in 2016: 1. The Nazi regime in Kiev 2. The civil war in the Donbass 3. Ukrainian attempts to blockade Crimea 4. The rabid hostility of the US Administration 5. NATO’s policy of military confrontation in Europe 6. The united European front against Russia 7. Western sanctions, the subsequent drop in investments and credit and the low oil prices 8. The growing dissatisfaction of the Russian people with the economic polices of the government 9. The struggle against the “liberal” 5th column inside Russia 10. …

People wake up!

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Neoliberal-fascist atrocities become rapidly ever bolder and are carried out with impunity. They should wake up the 99.99% from our brainwashed dreams and make us SCREAM! – Scream for change, not at the margin, but fundamental. This apparatus has to stop, not just be ‘reformed’ as the caviar ‘left intellectuals’ suggest.

VIDEO: Poroshenko pledges to raise Ukrainian flag over Crimean Peninsula

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stood alongside a daughter of the Ukrainian hero Volodymyr Rybak, Maria Rybak, when he participated in an annual flag-raising ceremony in Kiev on the National Flag Day, Tuesday.

Ukraine’s ‘October Surprise’ – may be coming in September

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by Justin Raimondo, from antiwar.com When a Russian FSB agent and a Russian soldier were killed by a team of Ukrainian saboteurs, and one of the captured Ukrainians was shown on Russian media in handcuffs, US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt tweeted: US government has seen nothing so far that corroborates Russians allegations of a ‘Crimea incursion’ & Ukraine has strongly refuted them.” Apparently two dead Russians don’t count for much in Pyatt’s book: perhaps Putin personally killed them, and the whole thing is a set up. And how has Ukraine “strongly refuted” this accusation? According to the Ukrainian authorities, the captured would-be saboteur, one Yevgeny Panov, was “kidnapped” from his home town in Zaporizhia – a distance of some 200 miles – by the Russians and transported to Crimea. The Ukrainian police have solemnly announced that “We are taking all necessary measures to promptly, fully and impartially investigate all circumstances of this crime.” One has to admire the ability of the Ukrainian authorities to utter the most portentous absurdities with the perfect aplomb of …

Did mercenaries move to Crimea border under cover of NATO Sea Breeze exercises?

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from Fort Russ Translated from Russian by Kristina Kharlova Sea Breeze exercises were used to transfer foreign mercenaries to the border of Crimea Ukraine and NATO’s Sea Breeze exercises in the Black Sea became a smokescreen to smuggle foreign mercenaries to Odessa and Kherson region, said former people’s deputy Aleksey Zhuravko on air of program “Pravda.” According to him, such actions are directed against Russia and are a preparation for war. “Why do you think today, so many mercenaries came to the territory of Ukraine? It’s no secret that in Nikolaev, Odessa region there are Poles, Hungarians and Americans. This was all done for ‘Sea Breeze’, but, in fact, a springboard is prepared for war against Russia. When they realized that they lost Crimea, immediately understood what is behind it. Of course, while it’s still hot, they want to spin the wheel of war. And this wheel will continue to spin,” – said Zhuravko. Putin comments on the situation that occurred on the Crimean border a few days ago

Crimea and Ukraine: Luke Harding goes off his meds

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by Kit Modern mass-media is replete with instances of cognitive dissonance. However none can so perfectly encapsulate the madness of the pretend world so many “journalists” now live in better, than these two offerings from the always entertaining Luke Harding. It has been reported that Russia has beefed up security on the Ukraine-Crimea border, in response to an apparent attack by SBU agents that resulted in the deaths of 2 Russian servicemen, there are also fears Kiev may try to disrupt the September 18th parliamentary elections. Luke’s reaction to this, on twitter, was as balanced and reasonable as anybody who reads his articles would expect (at least, the ones he hasn’t stolen from other people): #Russia now accusing #Ukraine of armed #Crimea incursion. Classic fakery – but to what end? https://t.co/lA4dlA9jUG — Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) 10 August 2016 Yes, he declares the Ukrainian attacks are “classic fakery”, when asked he would not provide evidence for this assertion. But then evidence isn’t really Luke’s thing. The strange thing is that, in his other writings, such as …

NATO, Back in Business at the Old Stand

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by Patrick Armstrong, via Sic Semper Tyrannis Spare a thought for the travails of NATO drones over the past couple of decades.  About 25 years ago I was in competition for a job on the International Staff at NATO.  I’ve forgotten most of the details but it would have paid about US$100,000.  Tax free.  Plus benefits.  What would have been the equivalent salary, in the real world, to that, do you suppose?  In return, NATO started work sometime Monday afternoon and knocked off early on Friday and essentially took meetings the rest of the time.  And Brussels is a convenient base for travelling around Europe.  But I didn’t get the job. The Warsaw Pact imploded, followed by the USSR and NATO’s raison d’être disappeared.  A colleague who finally got a position on the Canadian delegation (no big IS salaries for them!) seriously wondered whether NATO would last through his time there. Well, it did.  Expansion (soon officially changed to the more anodyne “enlargement”) gave employment.  NATO, it piously said, cannot stop people from freely applying …

NATO and ‘News’ Media Pump for WW III

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by Eric Zuesse (updated and expanded from his article at strategic-culture.org) Introduction America’s announcement that Russia has committed ‘aggression’ against America, is an announcement that America is at war against Russia; and here is how America’s ‘news’ media have said that it’s the case — that Russia has aggressed — even as the U.S. government is still only preparing to attack Russia, and isn’t yet ready actually to invade that country. Right now, this propaganda is only psychological warfare, preparation of the U.S. public to accept that America’s invasion of Russia, when it comes, will be ‘defensive,’ not ‘offensive’. This psychological framing of the big invasion, in advance, is important in order for the American people to believe, when the invasion comes, that it’s some sort of ‘just’ war, not an aggression, and conquest, by NATO — America and its allies — against Russia. (At least some people in the global aristocracy are already buying nuclear-proof bomb-shelters, because they’re sufficiently well-connected to know what’s not being published.) Dissecting a Key Deception On June 16th, Adam …

Crimeans Recount Their Experiences When The West Took Ukraine

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by Eric Zuesse This news-report consists of a compilation of accounts that Crimeans have given to human rights groups or directly posted to the internet, regarding their experiences when the freely elected President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, who had received 75% of the votes of Crimeans, was violently overthrown during January and February of 2014. On 20 February 2014, eight busloads of people from Crimea, who had come into Ukraine’s capital Kiev and were holding signs there demonstrating in opposition to the “Maidan” movement, which was seeking to oust Yanukovych, were violently attacked by “Right Sector” people who were leading the Maidan movement; and those terrified Crimeans then scrambled back into their buses, which promptly sped southward, toward home in Crimea. An organization “Ukraine Human Rights” created and posted to the internet, on 14 August 2014, a 25-minute video, with English subtitles, telling these people’s stories. It’s titled “The Pogrom of Korsun”, and it reports, with testimony and some of the videos from survivors, the attacks against those buses when a gang of Ukraine’s Right …

Nuland to Congress: We Spend $100 Mil a Year Trying to Destabilize Russia (Video)

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by Ricky Twistdale, via Russia Insider On Tuesday [June 7, 2016], the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations scheduled a two-hour anti-Russian hate-fest. Lies, misinformation and jaw-dropping stupidity were on full display. The star witness of course, was Tricky Vicky Nuland. These congressional committee meetings crack me up. In theory, they’re supposed to be interviewing witnesses to collect information. In reality it’s a platform for congressmen to make speeches satisfying the special interests who own them and then they read questions from prepared notes provided to them by “experts” or lobbyists (or maybe the witnesses themselves). Then they get the answers they want to hear from the witnesses. It is 100% theater. Nuland’s opening statement was full of scare mongering about the supposed threat to peaceful civilization from Moscow. She did provide some telling facts. She said the US had already spent $600 million on “security assistance” to Ukraine – so on top of other billions in handouts from the IMF, most of which was stolen by oligarchs, that’s money going directly to killing kids in Donbass. …

Veneto Calls on Italy to Recognize Crimea

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by Sergio Rame (Il Giornale), translated by Tom Winter; via Fort Russ Summary: Historic resolution of the majority headed by [Luca] Zaia. The accession of the Crimea to Russia is recognized. A move that breaks the European sanctions The counselors of the majority of the Veneto Region have signed a resolution asking the Italian government for a commitment to recognize Crimea as part of the Russian Federation, and for the end of sanctions. Luca Zaia On the formal level, (first signatory: Stefano  Valdegamberi, counselor of the Zaia List and fresh from a forum in Yalta) the resolution has in fact the character of a request. But it is important politically. Why? Because, in this way, the Veneto Region is leading the way in Europe for recognition of the Crimea’s accession to Russia. Stefano Valdegamberi In 2014, following the Ukrainian crisis and more or less explicit intervention of Russia, which has supported the separatist fringes of the region, the Crimea has detached itself from the rest of Ukraine, confirming the separation by the outcome of a …